SUCCESS IN BUSINESS
Randy Taylor
Founder of Taylormadeleadership, Top Rated Keynote Speaker, Performance Coach and Accomplished Author
If you ask any business owner, manager or leader today, they will all echo the sentiment that these are challenging times. Businesses today are constantly being impacted by the economy, interest rates, supply chain issues, changes in technology, innovation, global competition and a hiring shortage.
The questions faced are,
“How to attract the best people”?
“How do you keep them”?
“How to increase productivity”?
“How to outperform the competition”?
And finally, with all these issues of the day
“How do you grow”?
The solution to every one of these issues is to develop a culture focused on growing your organization one person at a time. The most overlooked aspect of business growth today is the untapped potential of the individual.
Here is the calculation that bears this out. If you have 100 people on your team and want to grow by 10%, the logic would be to bring in an additional 10 people.
The alternative to this would be to impact growth by improving the output of the 100 by 10%.
I have spent my lifetime studying the science of human behaviour and there is no question that productivity, output, creativity and drive is completely within the control of the individual. This simple question of how all aspects of business is impacted comes from a simple question. Ask yourself this.
“When have YOU worked the hardest in your life? When you were told to, or when you wanted to”?
We all arrive at the same conclusion. The answer then is to approach business growth from the imperative of creating a culture where your people ‘want to win’. This is a reciprocal process. Read this next statement slowly and maybe a second time.
“Your people will want the company to win when you prove you want them to win”
As the legendary personal development leader Zig Ziggler said,
“If you help enough people have what they want, you can have anything you want”
What we all want is to grow as people. To have more, to become more, to experience more, to make a difference, to count for something and to see the path forward to actualizing our individual hopes and goals and dreams.
“As an organization if we are indifferent to their goals, they will be indifferent to ours”
When the structure of the organization shines the light first on the individual, watch what happens.
· They will become more engaged and want to contribute both in effort and creatively beyond the purview of their own job
· They will become fiercely loyal and will rarely leave
· They will be driven by a competitive spirit in the marketplace
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· Their confidence will grow
· Productivity will increase because they ‘want to’
· They will share the story of what it’s like to be part of the organization out in the world and help to attract more of the best who will value what you are offering
· Health will improve and absenteeism will decline
· They will be happier
Yes, at the end of the day, "your people will be happier".
Here are changes you can implement to become that organization that outperforms all others.
-1 The Power of Inclusion. Create a structure where creativity and input are regularly asked for across all departments in an encouraging way. Make every member of the organization a member of the (company name) Think Tank.
-2 Alter the annual employee evaluation form into an employee goal form. (Almost all of the information will remain, but now the focus will be on helping them to grow as an individual)
-3 Have all managers collect a dossier on each of their people to learn aspects of their personal lives and goals and use this information in conversation and communication to prove they get them, understand them and were thinking about them.
-4 Invest in programs for their individual growth to improve confidence and self-esteem and develop important skills that will help them to achieve their goals.
-5 Invest in their growth outside of the organization. Provide an annual investment to be applied to an area of the person’s choosing. It could be photography or pottery or biking or any other endeavor ‘THEY’ were interested in pursuing.
-6 Invest in their health. Make health an educational and supportive element of your culture. Fitness, nutrition, meditation, yoga, hiking and stress management will continue to tell the story that you care.
It all comes down to an aspect of human behaviour that is as old as time.
“When you help them become their best, they will want the same for you”
Randy Taylor